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Dec 3, 2021 · Set over one fateful night in Raccoon City, the new movie combines the plot of the first two Resident Evil games, adding in a splash of the ticking clock hook of the third movie and elements of ...
- isandwell@digitalspy.co.uk
- 2 min
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City: Directed by Johannes Roberts. With Kaya Scodelario, Hannah John-Kamen, Robbie Amell, Tom Hopper. Set in 1998, this origin story explores the secrets of the mysterious Spencer Mansion and the ill-fated Raccoon City.
- (65K)
- Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
- Johannes Roberts
- 2021-11-24
Resident Evil: Raccoon City barely bothers. We, on the other hand, shouldn't bother at all. Full Review | Jan 22, 2022. Julian Roman MovieWeb ...
Nov 24, 2021 · There are too many scenes in “Raccoon City” that have poor geography—flash cuts of zombie heads growling and guns being fired. Repeat. There were times when I wasn’t even sure who was almost getting eaten. We need to know where the characters are in the space for tension to exist. Otherwise, it’s just hollow imagery.
- The latest live-action Resident Evil film has interesting ideas, but a short runtime and rushed third act hold it back.
- Live-Action Versions of Video Game Characters
- What's Your Favorite Resident Evil?
- Verdict
By Taylor Lyles
Posted: Nov 23, 2021 2:00 am
This is a spoiler-free review of Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which debuts in theaters on Nov. 24.
When Sony announced that it was going to relaunch the live-action Resident Evil film series, I was cautiously optimistic, curious to see how director Johannes Roberts would stick to the source material after a promising first trailer. Unfortunately, Welcome to Raccoon City is disappointing as a horror movie; in fact, it felt more like a comedy at times than something that would keep me on the edge of my seat. It’s got some interesting ideas, but between the cheesy writing that doesn't do its thinly-sketched characters much justice and a rushed third act, it’ll be hard to rewatch this one as a fan of the series.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City’s plot adapts the stories of the first two Resident Evil games with one portion of the story focusing on Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell), Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), and Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper) as they explore the Spencer Mansion, while the other storyline focuses on Leon Kennedy (Avan Jogia) and Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario) as the duo looks for a way out of Raccoon City before the town explodes. The cast isn’t a problem, with a solid performance from each fitting mostly to their fictional character counterparts. Plus, the post-credits scene certainly teases that we’ll be seeing more of one specific character should a sequel be greenlit.
Despite a good performance from Jogia, there is a somewhat annoying issue in the way Leon’s written here. His background’s been changed a little bit, and he’s still considered that “rookie member of the force” as he was in Resident Evil 2 (he was only a cop for one day in that game). Yet, most of the scenes with Leon had him either being extremely incompetent or taking the brunt of the joke, which can become frustrating and grating, particularly if you’re a fan of Leon S. Kennedy. I can appreciate the screenplay leaning into his inexperience, but the gag quickly grew tiresome, especially as we’re expecting a darker and scarier film from this.
My biggest concern going into the movie, however, was the fact that it was sandwiching the plots of two video games together, and the relatively lean runtime of 107 minutes does indeed make the entire product feel extremely rushed once the third act approaches. That said, I wasn’t expecting to be a beat-by-beat repeat of the first two games, and why should it be? You can watch YouTube supercuts of all the cutscenes for that. Even though the entire film feels both underwhelming and overwhelming with how much they tried to pack in, it’s worth giving Roberts credit for wanting to try to make a film that had closer ties to the games than any of the Paul W.S. Anderson films. Still, it might have been a more realistic goal to focus on, say, the story of just one of the games rather than trying to figure out how many key plot points they could shove into a short run time.
Meanwhile, the main setting — the titular Racoon City — is suitably intriguing. In the first act, Roberts sets up Raccoon City as a decaying town in economic shambles after Umbrella, the powerful and extremely influential corporation known for developing pharmaceuticals and weapons leaves with but a few employees left. The atmosphere and several scenes that focus on the city itself really help bring a fresher take on this fictional location, and it would’ve been nice to see more about it, as it mostly leaves a lot up to your own interpretation.
Resident Evil (1996)
Resident Evil 2 (1998)
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999)
Resident Evil - Code: Veronica (2000)
Resident Evil Zero (2002)
Resident Evil 4 (2005)
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is certainly not the worst video game adaptation or even the worst Resident Evil movie, but both those bars are pretty low. Director Johannes Roberts does deserve some credit for sticking much more closely to the source material than the Paul W.S. Anderson films, but a short runtime, a rushed third act, and la...
- Taylor Lyles
Box office. $42 million [ 4 ][ 7 ] Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is a 2021 action horror film [ 8 ] written and directed by Johannes Roberts. Adapted from the stories of the first and second games by Capcom, it serves as a reboot of the Resident Evil film series and is the seventh live-action film based on the video game series.
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Nov 24, 2021 · Jan 14, 2022. Resident evil: welcome to raccoon city A dedicated adaptation that greatly shines in the first three quarters, but winds into a rushed and somewhat anticlimactic end. It has a good balance of horror, action and Chernobyl elements, with good cinematography and effects. The runtime also helped it prevent ennui.
